Speaker: Dr. Giovanna Ferraioli, MD, PhD
Reference Doctor, Ultrasound Unit,
Department of Clinical, Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences University of Pavia,
Pavia, Italy
Dr. Ferraioli is a researcher at Department of Clinical, Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences, University of Pavia, Italy. She is member of the Education Committee of the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (WFUMB) and Chair of the WFUMB Steering Committee for “Multiparametric Ultrasound: Update to WFUMB 2018 elastography guidelines and consensus on fat quantification”. She is also member of the AIUM-RSNA QIBA Pulse Echo Quantitative Ultrasound (PEQUS) Biomarker and Committee and co-chair of the attenuation working group and member of the ACR LIRADS Quantitative Imaging Work Group. She is head of the Ultrasound section of the Scientific Editorial Board of European Radiology; subspecialty Editor of Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, and member of the Editorial Board of World Journal of Gastroenterology, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Diagnostics, Journal of Ultrasound.
Multiparametric US for the evaluation of MASLD
An early and accurate detection of liver steatosis is important because metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver (MASLD) is associated with several metabolic comorbidities that are the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, the literature suggests that fibrosis progression may occur not only in patients with metabolic disfunction-associated steatotic hepatitis (MASH) but also in those with “benign” liver steatosis. Therefore, tools that non-invasively assess liver fat content and liver fibrosis are of great interest not only for the diagnosis but also for follow up and prognostication. Algorithms for a quantitative estimation of liver fat content are commercially available and most of them are based on the evaluation of the US attenuation coefficient. Multiple clinical studies, mostly performed with ATI (Canon Medical Systems), have demonstrated good accuracy and reproducibility of these new algorithms for fat quantification. Since a few years, liver stiffness assessment with the shear wave elastography (SWE) techniques is considered a reliable substitute of liver biopsy in several clinical scenarios, including MASLD. Guidelines regarding the use of the SWE techniques for the staging of liver fibrosis have been released. For the US evaluation of MASLD, scores that combine US parameters have also been recently proposed.